A/N: So here is the new chapter after that mean cliffy. I know you want to get to the story but a little bit of housekeeping. This is a few chapters back, but a couple of people have asked and now I can answer it. Edward is a US marshal, so he is paid by the federal government. He was doing a job for the Seattle PD, meaning they were paying him, but because he is a federal contractor basically, his "address" was only viewable by authorized people for example payroll. His house was not in his name so to a common criminal it would be untraceable to him, we now know there is someone on the inside who is corrupt, therefore they have access to "confidential" info. I hope this answers the question. We are working off the information the characters have at the time. Thank you to whoever recced the story because I got a lot of new readers. Thank you so much for the reviews, I treasure them. Thank you to Cullenlvr's circle of wise women (aka prereaders) Bitterharpy, Maplestyle, LaMomo, and AGoodWitch. Thank you to Alice's white rabbit for her red pen. You make me look super smart lol. Onto the story.

Shots rang out through the entire house and it took everything in me not to jump out of the tub and join Edward in defending this little girl, and each other. As things stood, I just kept Katiya calm by hugging her to me and telling her everything would be okay. I peeked over the edge of the tub and saw someone run by toward the room that Katiya had been sleeping in. I lifted my gun above the rim of the tub and waited for the person to run by again. It couldn't be Edward because he knew exactly where we were. The guy ran by again, and I shot him right in the kneecap. He cried out and I saw him look over at me. I smiled evilly and waved. He grabbed for his gun, and I shot him in the shoulder. His gun went flying. I heard footsteps running to where we were, and Edward came around the corner, gun raised. I could see him, but he wouldn't be able to see me yet.

"Bella!"

"In here."

The man was on the ground, clutching his shoulder and panting in pain. Blood was pooling under him from both of his injuries. Edward stopped short of the doorway as the man was lying in the way. Katiya was tugging on my arm and shaking it. I glanced at her, and the look of terror in her eyes told me this was serious.

"Bella, that's one of the guys who were there that night. I remember him from his tattoos."

Edward looked down at the guy. He nudged the guy where his knee was injured. "You picked the wrong house."

The man chuckled. When he spoke, he had a thick Russian accent. "This wasn't an accident. We just want the girl."

"All right, let's talk." Edward dragged him away from us. I told Katiya to lay back down. I knew Edward was going to use any means to get information from this slimeball. I smiled at Katiya and started talking to her. I heard the slap of a hand on skin and looked up to see the creep leering at me.

"You don't fucking look at her. Look at me, asshole."

The man seemed intent on ignoring him and Edward stuck his finger in the man's gunshot wound. I turned away as the man cried out and I heard mumbled talking. I started talking to Katiya again, to keep her from hearing what was going on. The man's voice started to rise.

"They're gonna kill you, do whatever they want with the sooka, and take the little girl. You have no idea what you stepped in, mudak."

"You like to speak Russian like I can't understand your meaning. How's this for you? Dasvidanya," Edward said menacingly, and then there was one gunshot. Katiya and I jumped. I motioned for her to get out of the tub with me. Edward rushed over to help us both out of the tub. "We gotta go. The police will be here soon, and they are not equipped to deal with this. Can you get all our stuff together? I already know a few locations where we can go."

"Another safe house."

"Nope, something else. It's secure but I think trusting anyone other than Emmett right now is a bad move. I'll tell you later what the thug told me," he said, whispering the last part in my ear.

"Come on, pretty girl. Let's go get your stuff first, yeah?" I asked and Katiya bobbed her head, following me to her room. We packed up everything in her room, and then she helped me pack up Edward's and my stuff. We carried the bags and a suitcase out to the living room. Edward was moving around in the kitchen. Katiya went and got him. He handed me the burner phone.

"Text Emmett. Tell him this phone is compromised and so is his. Tell him he knows where to communicate. Make sure the message sends, then pull the battery out. Crush it and the phone with your foot. I'm gonna go take this to the car while you do that."

I typed out the message, and then sent it. Then crushed the phone as Edward instructed. I crouched down and made Katiya look at me. "Hey, khoroshen'kaya devochka, are you okay? I know that was pretty scary."

"I was scared, but I knew you and Edward would keep me safe. The other guy Edward shot in the kitchen was at my parents' house too. Thank you, Bella." She surprised the hell out of me by hugging me and burying her face in my neck. I hugged her back with as much strength.

"I'll never stop, Katiya."

"I know. I trust you guys."

Edward came back inside, and he looked at me concerned. I shook my head and picked up Katiya while rising to stand. "We ready?" I asked. He nodded and we left the house without looking back. We knew law enforcement would be there soon. Katiya fell asleep quickly in the backseat. I told Edward what she told me about the guy in the kitchen. He already knew because he had recognized him from the mugshots.

We stopped at the gas station to get fuel and he needed candy. After going inside and paying, he got back in the car and immediately popped one of the suckers in his mouth. "What's with the Dum-Dums?"

"I quit smoking six months ago. Whenever I get anxious or whatever, I want to smoke, so instead, I have a sucker," he answered.

I nodded. We got back on the road quickly. "Where are we going?"

"This morning we're gonna stop in Reno, Nevada. I'm gonna get another burner phone and try to contact Emmett. Then we're gonna rest, and then we are going to Centerville, Utah where my stepmom has some property. She's not connected to me, especially since my dad's last name is Cullen."

"But the guys in the house, lying dead, are her parents' killers. Why do we still need to hide?"

"Well, I guess it's time to talk about what that goon in the house told me. This is so not about her being able to identify them as the killers."

"What is it about?"

"That, he wouldn't tell me. I don't think he even knows, but their orders are not to silence Katiya and any witness. It's to silence any witness and obtain the girl."

"Obtain? Like kidnapping?"

"Yeah, and it's fairly obvious they're working for the mob, and since they both had Russian accents, I'm gonna go with that is who they're with?"

"But then why do they want her so much. We originally thought they wanted to stop her from identifying her parents' killers, but if that's not the case, and they want her alive, then what the hell is going on?"

"I don't know. This situation is so fucked up and becoming so complicated," he said, running his hand through his hair and pulling it, then rubbing his hand down his face.

We both fell silent. I stayed up as long as I could before he told me to get some rest and that he was okay to drive by himself. I grabbed his hand and held it as I let the car lull me to sleep.

~OoO~

When I was startled awake, it was still dark outside. It wasn't surprising. The drive to Nevada was about eight hours, so we would get there shortly after the sun rose. I rubbed my eyes, stretched, and looked over at Edward.

He smiled sweetly at me. "Hey, sleepyhead. Did you know you talk in your sleep?"

I looked at him in shock. I knew this, but it was something I never had anyone other than my sister or my mom point it out. "What did I say?"

"Just my name and Katiya's. There was some mumbling in there, too, but I couldn't make it out."

I covered my face with my hands. "Oh, my God, that is so embarrassing."

"No, it's not," Edward said, removing my hands from my face. "Come on, Bella," he said, tilting my chin to look at him. "I found it flattering and adorable."

"You certainly are a different breed of man, Mr. Masen." I sighed and nodded.

"You must have been with the wrong kind, Ms. Swan, to think that I'm different."

"But you are, Edward. You don't see what I see apparently."

"And what do you see?"

"Your heart. I've told you before you didn't have to help us. You could have passed this case on to someone else. You could have left me and Katiya in the FBI's care, but you didn't. You stayed and you've already shown in so many different small and big ways how much you care about us."

Edward grabbed my hand and squeezed it. "I'm with you 'til the end of the line."

I giggled. "Did you just quote Captain America?"

"I sure did, but I mean it. There is nowhere else I would rather be. There are so many other ways I could have handled this, and the line was crossed before we even slept together. This isn't just a job anymore. It's not just a case. This is someone messing with the people I care about, and I don't take that shit lying down."

I knew he was driving but I felt the urge to kiss him, so I leaned over and kissed him quickly. "Thank you, Edward."

We talked off and on during the drive to Nevada. Even though my nap was short, I wasn't tired. I was starting to get used to being awake in the car with Edward when it was late at night. Most of the times we had moved locations, we did it under the cover of night, and I stayed up with him the whole time.

We made it to Reno, and we made our way to a hotel that was on the edge of town, not the more populated area with the casinos and the tourists. Edward checked us in. I grabbed Katiya out of the car, trying not to wake her up. Edward told me that he needed to get another phone and he would just go somewhere close, but he was going to leave us here.

"You need to lock the door behind me, and don't unlock it until you know it's me by looking through the peephole."

I nodded, feeling uneasy and my stomach sinking. He kissed me on the forehead, looked me in the eyes, and left. I engaged the deadbolt and the chain the minute the door swung closed. I went and sat on the bed, hoping that some TV could keep me distracted.

I was jolted awake by pounding on the door. Katiya moaned and rolled over. I tried to rub the sleep out of my eyes on the way to the door. I was about to open the door when I remembered Edward telling me to make sure it was him. I looked through the peephole and saw the man who had checked us in. I didn't know what to do. It seemed a little odd that the front desk clerk would be checking on us right after we had checked in. I decided that it wasn't worth it if he had less than pure intentions. I was half-convinced it had more to do with being a younger woman who was left in a hotel room by an older male. I stood by the door waiting for him to stop knocking, hoping he would just give up and go away.

When he finally stopped knocking and I saw him turn to walk away in the peephole, I slid down the wall to sit next to the door, hoping Edward would be back soon. Even though we had only been in this situation for three weeks, I honestly was having a hard time remembering my life before any of this started. When Edward and I would flirt shamelessly while we crossed paths at the hospital, Alice and Rose were my constant companions, and my life was lonely but uncomplicated. Now I was taking care of a child whom I was coming to find I knew very little about, and I was constantly around a guy who both terrified me and thrilled me at the same time. I knew he had the power to break me because I was slowly falling for him. While this situation was scary and unlike any I had ever been in, I was more scared of a broken heart than anything else.

I was broken out of my musing by knocking on the door. I jumped up and was relieved to see Edward in the peephole. I disengaged the locks as quickly as I was able and pulled him inside the room, looked both ways out the room, closed the door, and reengaged the locks. He looked at me with raised eyebrows when I turned around.

"The desk clerk came by when you were gone. I didn't answer the door, but it was a little weird."

"Yeah, he was leering at you when I checked us in."

I nodded. Seems my assessment was correct. "That's creepy and disgusting."

He nodded his agreement. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just getting used to having to be around people again. Been a while," I said, half-joking. Edward smiled and chuckled. I noticed that when he smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkled and his eyes looked brighter, even more green than they normally did. I rolled my eyes at myself and sat on the bed with him as he pulled the phone he bought out of the bag and started getting it all set up. We had to constantly remember to use cash whenever we bought something. We didn't touch the money I had in my account because it was pretty much a given that the police would be watching my bank account. It was too easy to be caught. Edward was signing into email on his phone.

"Before Emmett went to talk to your family, we set up email accounts that would be used to get in touch with each other if something happened to the phone numbers we had for each other. Hopefully, he has gotten a burner phone for himself and has emailed me. He's supposed to leave for New York today, but I also imagine that he had to go check out the mess we left behind in Oregon."

"How do you think they found us?"

"The only way they could have found us was by monitoring Emmett's calls, which means that someone with the Portland FBI office is in these guys' pockets as well. That's also why I told him his phone was compromised." Katiya started stirring on the bed. Edward looked over at her. "We need to get something to eat."

"I brought some stuff in the suitcase. I can go get it."

"No, I don't want you out there in the open more than absolutely necessary. That pervy front desk clerk is probably still around. I'll go get the suitcase while I call Emmett," he explained. He wrote a number down on a piece of paper, dialed the number, and then proceeded to light the piece of paper on fire and put it in the ashtray on the nightstand. "I'm gonna take this outside. If we put it on speaker, Katiya will wake up and she doesn't need to hear this shit. I promise I'll tell you everything."

I nodded reluctantly because he was right, and I knew it was the only option at this point. I sat watching TV, trying not to pout as I watched his back as he disappeared through the door.

EPOV

"Edward, is that you?" Emmett asked

"Yeah, man," I said, unlocking the car and sitting in the driver's seat.

"Dude, what the fuck happened in Coos Bay?" he exclaimed.

"They found us, Emmett, and I don't know for sure, but I have some ideas on how," I explained.

"Yeah. I still have my civilian cell phone and my business one but now I am talking to you on a burner, so this should be untraceable," he assured.

"Did you see the house?" I asked.

"No, but I was told about it," he replied. I could imagine when he got that news.

"Were you told that our two suspects in Katiya's parents' murder are dead now?" I asked, doubting he was because someone was gonna cover that up.

"What the fuck? They were there?" he questioned, his voice rising.

"Yeah, and I managed to get some info out of the second one before I shot him in the head."

"What did he say?"

"He wouldn't tell me who gave them our location or why specifically, but he did tell me their mission was to silence any witness and obtain the girl. He told me it was about so much more than her being a witness to the murders. His license was clearly fake, and his accent was Russian," I said, dropping the bomb.

"Fuck, Ed, man, this is more complicated than we thought."

"And a lot more dangerous. Em, this is out of my wheelhouse. I'm trying not to worry because Bella will freak out, but I've never dealt with the fucking Bratva or Chechens," I said, finally telling someone I was freaked. I took the pack of cigarettes out I had bought at the gas station. Suckers were not going to cut it anymore.

"Well, let's hope it's the Bratva. If it's the Chechens, then we are fucked. I know you hate to hear this, but I'm gonna have to tell you to wait again. Jenks and I see that prisoner today, and then I can give my connection some more direction to see what he can find out from Russia. You have somewhere safe and secure to take the girls?"

I lit the cigarette and exhaled. "Yeah. I fig–"

"Don't tell me. We don't know who's listening. I'll call you tonight or tomorrow, once I find out more, but I need more time for my guy to dig into this deeper. Are you smoking again?" he asked, hearing me exhale again.

"I am. Well, I'll let you do your thing and just contact me when you can."

"Will do. Stay safe, Ed," he warned.

"Always am. You too, man."

I hung up and flung the phone on the seat. I finished smoking and fisted my hair in my hands. I let the panic clutch me for a moment before I pushed it back and welcomed the numb feeling that was a constant friend. Then I thought of Bella, and the numb feeling was no longer sufficient. My feelings for her were strong and foreign. It had been so long since I actually wanted something more with a woman than mutual pleasure. Whenever I saw her at the hospital, she was confident and in control. Coming into this situation, I saw her vulnerability and her kind, caring nature, and I fell hook, line, and sinker.

I blew out a large breath and grabbed the phone, locking the door, unlocking the trunk, and grabbing the suitcase. I dragged it behind me, heading to our hotel room, hopeful that I would be able to get some sleep before we headed to Utah, but first, to eat and assure Bella that everything was okay, even if I fully didn't feel it at the moment.

Russian Translations (again I don't speak Russian, so this is from Google. Sorry if it's wrong):

Sooka- bitch

Mudak- asshole

Dasvidanya- goodbye

Khoroshen'kaya devochka- pretty girl

A/N: So how are we feeling. We will only get EPOV when it is necessary. This is Bella's story but sometimes it is important to know what is going on, and Edward is privy to more than her. So, Edward is feeling a little unsure and these two just keep falling deeper and deeper. Alright let me know what you think, and I will see ya'll in two weeks. As of today, this is the WIP I am working on but there is tons of stuff going on in the background so we will stay at every two weeks until I get more chapters banked. Love you all!